Good report for Carmarthenshire education

Education services for children and young people in Carmarthenshire are ‘good’.

That is the finding of the education inspection body Estyn on Carmarthenshire County Council’s education service.

Estyn also concluded that the prospects for further improvement of the service by the County Council are ‘good’, following the inspection conducted last March.

The definition of good used by Estyn is that services have “many strengths and no important areas requiring significant improvement”.

The main findings of the report, published this week, are that outcomes for learners, provision for learners and leadership and management by the County Council are all good.

Carmarthenshire’s Education and Children’s Services Executive Board Member Cllr Keith Davies said: “We very much welcome the findings of the inspection by Estyn of the County Council’s education services for children and young people which confirms that pupils across Carmarthenshire are receiving a good standard of education in their schools, and that the local authority effectively supports schools to continuously drive up standards of achievement.

“With the present high level of public scrutiny of education across Wales I am pleased that parents and young people across Carmarthenshire can have confidence that they benefit from a high quality local education service provided by the County Council.

“In these difficult financial times I am sure that residents will be pleased to note Estyn’s opinion that the education service offers good value for money as well as high quality.”

Director of Education and Children’s Services, Robert Sully, added: “Estyn’s findings confirm the success of the hard work invested by dedicated teams of talented people in our schools, and within the local authority, and it is pleasing to see their effective contribution recognised publicly.

“This report confirms that Carmarthenshire’s education service is one of the best in Wales. Within a very positive assessment of the education service overall Estyn did identify some concerns over lower that desired levels of attendance and performance issues in some schools and we shall be working closely with those schools over the coming months to address those matters.”